Inkjet and laser printers have become commonplace equipment in most workplace and home computing environments. Today, many printers are multi-functional assemblies capable of printing on a large array of print media such as, for example, letterhead, envelopes and labels. A recent innovation in the printing industry involves the manufacturing of print media with embedded radio frequency signatures such as is possible with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag. These tags, sometimes called “Smart Labels”, may be used with a variety of existing printing methods and the embedded tags may be programmed with information that is of use to the user.
Such print media generally comprises a backing material (sometimes referred to as the “web”) upon which a label is applied, with a RFID tag sandwiched between the label and the backing. There may be one or more labels on the web and the sheet as presented may be part label and part plain paper. Typically, there is a desired orientation of the media to be fed through the printer that will ensure the printed image aligns as intended with the labels and/or tags on the media sheet.
When the media is loaded into the printer and fed in an orientation that does not match the image to be printed, the result is often ruined media. For RFID-embedded smart labels, this is a particularly costly waste as the cost of the embedded tag significantly increases the cost of the media. Often, the presence of a single mis-oriented sheet in a cut-sheet printer, such as a typical ink jet or laser printer, is an indication that the entire stack of input media is not oriented correctly. It is desirable therefore that the printer be able to recognize at some point during the printing process whether the media orientation does not match the intended orientation. Once this detection is made, the printer or user may then take any of a number of corrective actions including, but not limited to, pausing or canceling the current print job and/or sending a warning message to the user.